4 Months!!

Kaitlyn's 4 months now.

She discovered she could scream/yell last week so now she does it ALL the time, regardless of her mood. She seems to just like to hear her own voice. Oh my poor ear drums...

She had one night of sleeping right through the night, followed by a few nights of very bad sleep. Perhaps I just don't have a kid that's meant to sleep through the night. Ah well. I really don't mind the waking up once at 3am to feed her, every couple of hours though, that's bit much. Looking back, I really don't know how I managed to survived the month 2 and 3 as I barely had 2 hours sleep each day for weeks and weeks... So now whenever I have a rough night, I just remind myself, at least it's a lot better than before.


We bought her a highchair and she loves it. It's great for me too, as I can now just sit her in the chair and push her around the house in it while I do housework.


She's sitting great now on her own, "like a normal person" so daddy says.



We got given a shirt that says "Lock up your sons" and a beanie that says "Spit Happens".






There are some more new photos, on Flickr: http://www.flickr.com/photos/lesetoiles/sets/72157604000653997/

The weather last week or 2 has been really annoying and we were stuck at home most days. It's driving me batty (er). I do like spending time with my baby but sometimes some grown-up company would be so much appreciated. I don't know how full time stay-at-home-mothers do it for years and years... Maybe it gets better once the kids can talk? I don't know. The sun's out today and hopefully for the next week. So we can go out for a few days :)

I finally got the all clear from the Obstetrician to exercise (long story and way too much information if I tell). So I do an hour of exercise a day from a couple of dvds (The Perfect Postnatal workout and Postnatal Yoga). The Perfect Postnatal Workout is great, as it incorporate the baby into the exercise and use her for weight training. Kaitlyn loves the workout too, she normally giggles the whole time. I am already seeing results as I can fit into my "normal" jeans perfectly now and finally have a waist again after all these months! Can't wait to get my flat tummy back.

bad mummy...

Last night after the bath, I put baby to bed. She settled and fell asleep on her own quite quickly. Then about 1 hour later, she started whining and grizzling. I waited outside her door to see if she'd settle back down on her own, but she didn't. So I walked in to check on her. THEN, I realised that I had not turned off the heater!!! The heater had been on its highest setting for the past 1.5 HOURS, and the room was like a steam room!! There my baby lay in a pool of sweat, crying. It took me 3 hours to settle her back to sleep, and she continued to wake every 2 hours throughout the night...

I dread to think what would've happened if she didn't wake up and cry, hence drawing me into her room. Or if we had done the "cry it out" method and ignored her cries. With the room at 30 degrees celcius and her wrapped twice and rugged up... the outcome could've been very disasterous... /sighs once again, I feel like a horrible mummy.

Lessons learnt, Part III -- Caring for a newborn (0 to3 months)

This is my first child and there's just so much to learn every day. Being a mother is the hardest thing I've ever done. Here are the most important things I've learned:

• IF your child has a tongue tie, do everyone a favour, and GET IT RELEASED/CUT. Kaitlyn's tongue tied caused us a lot of crying, pain and sleepless nights. I constantly had sore, bleeding nipples, Kaitlyn never ate enough in one sitting even with bottles and had to eat every 1.5 hours. It's very frustrating that most doctors won't give referrals to have the tongue tie fixed due "political correctness". F*** political correctness I'd say, in this case. I wish I had gotten Kaitlyn's done as soon as she was born. I probably would've have a chubbier baby and would've saved everyone a lot pain.

• The baby sets the schedule for your day

• The nights are long, but the weeks are short

• Parenting is a learnt skill, although you should trust your instincts, there are techniques that can be learned that may make life easier for everyone

• Always respond to your baby's cries. ALWAYS, at least till the baby turns 6 months. Baby needs to know that you will be there for him/her. Responding to the baby's cries, builds the trust relationship between parent and child.

• Buy nappies in bulk. The new born size (green Huggies) will only last a couple of weeks. But from Infant size (4 to 8kg), buy in bulk whenever it's on sale. Kaitlyn used Infant size till she was 6 months.

• Buy baby wipes in bulk. You can never have too many baby wipes, unless you are wanting to use cloths and water.

• Wrap the baby, not too tightly of course. And wrap the baby with the arms near the face as most babies sooth themselves with the arms/hands. During the first month or so, you may want to swaddle, i.e. wrap the legs in as well, so they don't startle themselves when kicking. Gradually, they will not need to be wrapped. Your baby will let you know when.

• The belly button: Bath and clean your baby as you normally would even when the belly button stump is still in. It's ok if it bled slightly, or smelled SLIGHTLY off. It should fall off on its own between 7 to 10 days. Do NOT pull or try to break it off, EVER. If in doubt call the doctor.

• Finger nails: for the first 2 months, their nails are very soft. There's no need to use a nail clipper or pair of scissors to cut them. They can be easily peeled off with your finger nails or your teeth. Remember not to peel too far. This is best done right after a feed when they are drowsy.

• Nursing station: set up a nursing station for breastfeeding. You will need:

• a comfortable chair, preferrably with foot rest. I LOVE my rocking chair, wouldn't have survived the early months without it.
  
• A table next to it where you can put the following: Water, protein bars, moisturiser for the baby, nipple cream, some reading material, burp towels, a clock.
  
• A pillow or 10 for your back, and a blanket to keep you legs warm. You are not sure how long your baby will eat for, so be comfortable.
• If you are someone that gets many phone calls, put your phone close by too
• You will be glad you have everyone close by as walking around with a baby attached to your boobs is NOT a good look and is definitely not easy once they are more than 3 weeks old
• Go to the toilet before you start a breastfeeding session

• Vaccinations: Your baby will have a vaccination at birth, 1 at 1 month old, and 1 at 3 months old. Note the following:
• he/she may get sick, have a temperature, have runny poops, a lot more whiney and clingy. Or he/she might just sleep A LOT right through it.
• If he/she has a temperature above 38 degrees celcius, give baby panadol every 6 hours. If temperature is higher than 38.5 degrees celcius, take baby to doctor right away
• Keep baby hydrated by nursing often. Even if baby is sleeping, wake him/her up every 3 hours max to feed.

• Playtime: You have precious little awake time during the first couple of months. Talk to the baby, let him/her watch your face and expressions. When he/she is a little more interactive around 2 or 3 months, introduce colourful simple toys. Kaitlyn loves a fluffy flower.
  

• Bath time, we bathed Kaitlyn every night. Not because baby gets dirty, but we wanted to set a routine for her. Remember to support baby's neck when bathing.

• Bedtime routines (4 Bs): It took us months before we figure out her routine and introduced bedtime routine. I wish we had done it earlier. Every night around 8pm, she gets bathed, bottled fed, a book was read to her, then we put her to bed.

• Tummy time: do it, and do it often. I wish we did more of it. Put baby on a mat on the floor and on her tummy for a few minutes at a time.

• Reflux and collic:
• Kaitlyn had both. The collic went away around 5 months and Reflux around 6 months. So yeah, eventually it was all better.
• While you are going through it though, it can be tough
• Make sure you have MANY burp towels. just little face cloths that you use to clean up her mess.
• Get changed soon as you get home (if you are working) into cloths that you do not mind being vomitted on.
• Burp the baby after each feed and make sure you get a few burps before laying him/her down
• Keep a food diary if you are breastfeeding, so you know if anything you eat may be stting off worse collic or reflux
• Tilt the bed so baby's head is higher than the feet. Kaitlyn slept a lot better with the inclined bed during the first 6 months. You can lower the head of the bed again when baby's ready.
  

• Making the bed:
  
• do NOT put any soft toys, mobiles, pillows, thick blankets on the bed to avoid SIDS
• Put baby to the foot of the bed to sleep so avoid baby falling under the blankets
• Put the following on the bed: 1x water proof fitted sheet, 1 cotton fitted sheet, then again on top of that, 1 water proof fitted sheet, and 1 cotton fitten sheet. Reason being, if baby did a boo boo in the middle of the night (vomit or wet the bed), you only need to remove the top fitten sheet and water proof sheet and you now have a fresh bed. Nothing worse than having to wander around the house, look for a new set of bedding and then making the bed. Not to mention the noise may wake the baby.
• if in winter and have to use doona, use breathable ones, and make sure the sides are securely tucked under the bed

• SLEEP when baby does. If you only have one child and you child actually sleeps, make sure you sleep as well. Ignore the dishes, ignore the mountain of laundry, etc. SLEEP. You will be glad you did.
  

That's all I can think of right now. I am sure there's plenty more that I have forgotten. A new baby is quite a challenge. Everyday you get more tired, but everyday there's so much joy as you see baby do new things almost daily. Enjoy the newborn period, because too soon, you will realise, they have grown up so big and way too quickly.

Week 16, a quick update

We've had a few very busy weeks. Kaitlyn's learning quite quickly now:

• She finally rolled over from tummy to back at 15 weeks and 2 days.
  
• She's also saying "mama" a lot, although I doubt she knows what it means yet, so I won't count it as first words. ;)
• She's sitting on her own without our assistance now with a pillow behind her
• She grabs things quite well and started to throw things around
• She plays with two hands together
  
• She is starting to show preferences for certain people, although I am trying to take her out often so that she doesn't develop too much "stranger anxiety"
• She holds her own bottle consistently
• She's drooling even more and chews anything that she can bring to her mouth
• She's forming attachments to a little Bee toy that we bought, and her yellow doona
  

There are probably other things I had forgotten, but she's just woken up, so I am off to tend to her needs. Oh, she's almost 6 kilograms and fast growing out of 00 size (3 to 6 months) clothes.